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Story:Star Trek: Conflict/Progenies
The Federation clones Edward Shield's father in an attempt to bring down their new enemy. Summary Chapter One L'taL is enjoying her new quarters onboard the . After spending a few minutes making sure everything is in perfect working order, she decides to thank Captain Halliwell for the promotion. When she arrives at the captain's cabin, Lois Lane, commander of his personal MACO squad, tells L'taL that the captain is indisposed at the moment. Despite protests on the importance meeting him (and some sarcasm from the commander), L'taL is still denied entrance. L'taL decides to turn her comm-badge into an intercom system in order to reach the captain and thank him for his decision. But when she finishes, she accidentally opens a secure audio surveillance channel in the captain's quarters. Captain Halliwell, Admiral Janeway, Admiral Picard, Tom Paris and Harry Kim are in discussion regarding a very sensitive issue that Admiral Nechayev considers top priority: the downfall of Edward Shield. Since he shares her last name, her interest is piqued and she listens in. From what she gathers from their conversation, he was the one who had her released from Starfleet Security's custody after the incident in the nightclub. Furthermore, they let slip that, because she is his daughter, she is essential to their plans. L'taL listens further. According to records from the secret archives of The Order, the only one who could have ever defeated Edward Shield was his father. However, if they are to successfully clone him, they will need his DNA: the only known carrier of that DNA being his son, who is not readily available...but Halliwell says that this is why L'taL is important to their plans: since she carries his DNA, they need not kill him, they only have to perform a bit of genetic splicing to isolate the Shield-DNA from that of her Klingon mother in order to get what they need. Janeway expresses her misgivings over using an individual as a weapon, and what dangers this might have on her: however, Captain Halliwell and Admiral Picard both conclude that "the needs of the many (in this case, the Federation) far outweigh the needs of the few". L'taL is appalled by this, and prepares to leave. But suddenly finds that the hallway has been blocked off with ray-shields. Halliwell approaches and remarks that she's been a bad girl. Later, she finds herself in Sick Bay, being administered by the ship's EMH. Halliwell claims that she cannot be allowed to live, now that she has what could be used as incriminating evidence against the greatest Starfleet captain in history (note he never mentions Captain Kirk nor his predecessor Captain Archer). She asks him if killing her will damage her DNA, which he replies to thusly... :Far easier to harvest DNA from a corpse. Through whispers, she is able to convince the EMH to reactivate its ethics program (which Halliwell had deactivated before processing began), saying that he is an inefficient machine without all of his subroutines active. The EMH decides that he cannot complete the procedure and utilizes a tranquilizer on L'taL to put her under, and then dismisses Halliwell as he begins the surgery. Once Halliwell leaves, the EMH gives L'taL a stimulant in order to wake her from the tranquilizer. She thanks him for his help, but in whispers since the EMH is certain that Halliwell is listening. He then helps her escape from Sick Bay and wishes her the best of luck before deactivating and locking himself, knowing what might happen if Halliwell discovers that he helped her escape. By sneaking through the ship, L'taL is able to beam herself back onto Earth, where she tries to find a place to lay low. Her wish is granted by an underground medical practitioner/singer living in the No Man's Zones of . L'taL asks her for two favors: one of them being to find a way to contact Edward Shield. Chapter Two Meanwhile, the two ships are in warp. Inside the however, things are hardly all right. Izg'raja has wandered out of the cargo bay (where the ship's civilian crew is being kept) and into the Senior Officer's quarters. Without orders, she took a uniform and got onto the Bridge, saying that she is the new Tactical Officer. Young is upset, since this is tantamount to circumventing her authority, but, because Izg'raja is a woman, she doesn't lash out...at first. Young says that Nox controls Tactical, but Izg'raja says that he can't be First Officer and control Tactical at the same time. Young says that Nox only acts as a First Officer in that he receives tasks that she delegates, but doesn't have any influence in her decision-making, therefore he works on Tactical. Izg then asks if she can be Operations Officer, but Young, starting to get irritated, says that she monitors all ship operations from the helm, so the task isn't needful. But Izg'raja dismisses this and says that she is the new Operations Officer. Young orders her to the Brig, but Izg'raja says that she's too busy with her new position to follow the captain's orders. She then canters off the Bridge, leaving Lianna Young seething. She vents her fury on Nox, saying that he hasn't done his task as overseer of the civilian crew. She orders him to restore order, which he grudgingly goes to do. But he's not having a good time with it. Ar'jykke is demanding that he be placed as the ship's sole security officer, since the crew owes it to him for "risking his life to save theirs". Nox says that they owe a vagrant Tholian nothing, only to be confronted with more "requests" from the other vagrants. Dauk-Dauk has escaped, and Pur'vawki is shedding, while Izg'raja reports here first to make sure that all of the "Civilian Crewmen" are satisfied. Nox loses it, saying that just because he was put in charge of them does not mean at all that he is their "voice to the captain", or their "friend", or that he'll give them any favors at all or that he owes them anything. Meanwhile, Dauk-Dauk has snuck through the Jeffries' tubes into the Engineering on Deck 2. He offers Wellington his help with the ship's engineering: though Wellington welcomes the help, he doesn't know how much help Dauk can be, since, by the captain's orders, only he can have access to the augmented warp engine, and therefore he's the only one who knows - though in part - how it works. Dauk ignores the help and begins examining the warp engine. Amazed by the sophistication of the S'srelli engine, Dauk begins pulling panels off and taking components apart. Wellington tells him to stop, but Dauk says that, as he knows nothing of the ship's warp engines, he has to take it all apart and rebuild it from scratch. On the , things are annoyingly calm. Not a peep of contention or mutiny comes from anyone, which is somewhat unsettling. Just then, a communique from the Admonitor comes through. Young informs Shield that they're picking up a signal encoded to the Enterprise's frequency...but the communique is cut by the Admonitor suddenly dropping out of warp. Chapter Three There is total chaos on the ''Admonitor''. Izg'raja's inspection of the Mess Hall went awry when she accidentally caused all the food replicators to malfunction, a fellow vagrant claiming to be only "Tosk" has been trying to reconfigure the communications array and the sudden drop out of warp was caused by Dauk-Dauk's radical restructuring of the warp drive. Lianna Young orders Nox to round them up so that she can address them herself, but Ar'jykke has "taken his post as security" directly in front of the cargo bay, keeping Nox from leaving the cargo bay. Frustrated beyond belief, Lianna Young goes to the communications array first and captures "Tosk" first. Then she heads off Izg'raja on her way to Sickbay, and stuns Dauk-Dauk after a comical chase through the rear engineering section. With Wellington taking Dauk under his arm and leading "Tosk" by the neck, Lianna Young, with Izg'raja tied to her hand, marches into the cargo bay and forces order with a phaser. She says that they're exhausting what little of welcome they have by being here uninvited, and that if they don't want to be beamed out into the vacuum, they need to stay in the cargo bay and not interrupt the normal functioning of the ship. They accuse her of being rude and unkind towards guests on her ship: Young reminds them that they are not guests and she has every right to have them executed since they've single-handedly damaged the replicators, disengaged the warp drive and repositioned the communications array, making her wonder if they're as innocent as they claim. With her weapon in hand, she threatens to vaporize Ar'jykke if he doesn't release Nox; she then takes the Romulan, leaves the cargo bay, seals and locks the door and then goes to the communications array. Shield has beamed over to the Admonitor, wondering what is wrong. Young says that its nothing she can't handle on her own, and then asks for his help in rearranging the communications array. He asks if this isn't asking for help, which she says is for him since it had received and stored the message sent for him. With his help, the comm-array is somewhat readjusted and a poor-quality voice/audio transmission comes through... L'taL asks for help, saying that she is in trouble that might affect them in the long-run. She asks for asylum, before something bad happens to her, which she knows is in the making. But as she is trying to explain exactly what kind of trouble it might be, she is seized from behind and the transmission ends. Chapter Four Shield asks that they go to Earth at once to rescue her, but Young naturally objects. But Shield gets furious, saying that they have to go, and that she wouldn't understand, since she's never been a parent. Young says that the ship's warp drive was shut down, and it has to be rebooted, which will take several hours. Shield says that they'll just dock onto the Enterprise-C's hull and it will tow them to Earth. Young reminds Shield that, without the Admonitor fully functional, they won't be able to have S'srelli-augmented weapon-support should they be attacked. Shield says that it is a chance he is willing to take and returns to the Enterprise-C to make ready for action. With the Enterprise-C ready, the Admonitor docks onto her lower-hull, and the larger ship goes to warp, arriving in orbit around Earth in three hours time. Once the blue planet fills the view-screen, the Enterprise's view-screen is filled with a shadowy image. A voice from that image welcomes them to Earth, and tells Edward Shield that, fortunately, his daughter is dead. The face then reveals itself... Leo Shield, in the flesh and alive again. Chapter Five Leo says that Admiral Nechayev, Admiral Picard and Captain Halliwell have been very fervent with their desires to bring him down to the point that they've decided to "unleash a monster upon the universe." Mockingly, Leo says that he will now live forever, and shall haunt Edward until his dying day. The transmission ends. Shield breaks down. Talking frantically to himself, he tries to reason out what he saw: he swares that he killed his father with his own hands, and yet here he stand before him again. Half-crazed, he wonders if his father is immortal, and therefore can never die...which means that his life is ruined. He no longer responds to anyone's commands or reports, leaving the Enterprise-C without a captain. Bat-Levi takes over and takes the Enterprise-C out of Earth's orbit, just as Lianna Young and Andrew Wellington finish repairs on the warp drive. On the Admonitor, the civilian crew are extremely apologetic, and ask that they try to make amends for their misbehavior. Young doesn't buy it, but allows them some freedom as long as they ask her first regarding anything...only to have them run off in all directions and not pay attention to any of her demands. Category:Star Trek: Conflict Episodes Category:Story Arc: The Shield Family Category:Story Arc: Alien Rage Virus